Lars Kolind
Encyclopedia
Background and career
Lars Kolind (born May 5 1947) is a DanishDenmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
, author, adjunct professor, non-executive board member, and group chairman of Grundfos
Grundfos
Grundfos is one of the world's largest pump manufacturer, based in Denmark with more than 18,000 employees globally. The annual production of more than 12 million pump units, circulator pumps , submersible pumps , and centrifugal pumps is approximately 50% of the world market for these pumps...
.
Kolind holds a M.Sc. in Mathematics from Aarhus University from 1972 and a B.Comm. from the Copenhagen Business School
Copenhagen Business School
Copenhagen Business School, also known as CBS, is situated in Copenhagen, Denmark. With more than 17,000 students and 1,300 staff members, CBS is also one of the largest business schools in Europe. CBS offers a wide range of business-oriented university programmes and a research environment...
from 1977. He is adjunct professor of leadership and strategy at Aarhus University Business School (Aarhus School of Business) since 2000. Kolind was executive vice president of Risoe National Laboratory 1981-84 and Chief Operating Officer of Radiometer
Radiometer (virksomhed)
A danish company...
A/S 1984-88.
For ten years (1988–1998) Kolind served as Group CEO for William Demant Holding A/S, which owns hearing aid
Hearing aid
A hearing aid is an electroacoustic device which typically fits in or behind the wearer's ear, and is designed to amplify and modulate sound for the wearer. Earlier devices, known as "ear trumpets" or "ear horns", were passive funnel-like amplification cones designed to gather sound energy and...
manufacturer Oticon
Oticon
Oticon is the worlds second largest hearing aid manufacturer. It is situated in Denmark outside the capital Copenhagen. It was founded in 1904 by Hans Demant, whose wife was hearing impaired. Oticon is particularly well known for their loose management style referred to as "Spaghetti Organization"...
. Kolind carried through a financial turnaround of Oticon 1988-90 and in 1991 Kolind transformed the company by designing and implementing the so-called Spaghetti Organization, which has been featured as one of the first knowledge-based, almost paperless organisations in the world. The new organisation led to a 100% increase in sales and profit before tax grew from DKK 2 M in 1991 to DKK 136 M in 1995. Kolind left William Demant Holding in 1998. Kolind’s work in Oticon has been featured in numerous articles and books including Tom Peters “Liberation Management” 1993 and Per Thygesen Poulsen’s “Think the Unthinkable” (in Danish: Tænk det Utænkelige) 1993. Upon Kolinds departure from Oticon professor Mette Morsing from the Copenhagen Business School edited the book “Managing the Unmanagable for a Decade” 1998.
Since 1998 Kolind has served as non-executive board member of K.J.Jacobs AG, Grundfos
Grundfos
Grundfos is one of the world's largest pump manufacturer, based in Denmark with more than 18,000 employees globally. The annual production of more than 12 million pump units, circulator pumps , submersible pumps , and centrifugal pumps is approximately 50% of the world market for these pumps...
, Poul Due Jensens Fond, Unimerco Group, Zealand Pharma, LinKS and Wemind. In 2000 he started PreVenture A/S, a venture capital firm, which was managed by BankInvest. PreVenture owned Retail Internet A/S, Yellowtel A/S, Isabella Smith A/S and KeepFocus A/S and was dissolved in 2009. Today Kolind is majority shareholder in KeepFocus A/S and Wemind A/S through his personal holding company Kolind A/S. The Kolind family also owns Løndal Østerskov A/S, which is the owner of the Løndal and Addithus Estates in Denmark. Kolind is chairman of the supervisory board of Kristeligt Dagblad A/S and a member of the advisory board of Danske Bank
Danske Bank
Danske Bank is a Danish bank. The name literally means "Danish Bank" It was founded 5 October 1871 as Den Danske Landmandsbank, Hypothek- og Vexelbank i Kjøbenhavn ....
.
Literature
In 2000 Kolind published the book “Vidensamfundet – Dagsorden for Danmark I det 21. århundrede” (The Knowledge Society – Agenda for Denmark in the 21st Century – in Danish). In 2006 Kolind wrote “The Second Cycle – Winning the War against Bureaucracy” published by Wharton School Publishing. The book has been translated into Chinese, Russian, Korean, Spanish, Swedish and Danish.Politics
On May 7, 2007 Kolind announced that he had supported the newly formed party “Ny Alliance” with a donation of DKK 100.000 hoping that he could help establish a new political agenda for Denmark in relation to the increased competition from low-wage countries, the environmental challenge and the future for Danish culture.At the November 2007 parliamentary election, Kolind ran for Ny Alliance in the Fyn
FYN
Proto-oncogene tyrosine-protein kinase Fyn is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the FYN gene.This gene is a member of the protein-tyrosine kinase oncogene family. It encodes a membrane-associated tyrosine kinase that has been implicated in the control of cell growth...
region. In the campaign Kolind illustrated the advantages of a national 40 percent flat tax by thinking the unthinkable that such a tax would only apply for the Fyn region. The party leaders wrongly misinterpreted Kolind’s illustrative example to be a concrete proposal which was not in accordance with the politics of the party. The confusion created doubt among voters. Kolind was not elected, but he openly continued to actively support the party.